A defrosting operation of an ejector-type refrigerant cycle device has been already proposed in Patent Document 1. In the cycle configuration disclosed in this patent document, a vapor-liquid separator is disposed downstream of an ejector and an evaporator is provided between a liquid phase refrigerant outlet of the vapor-liquid separator and a refrigerant suction port of the ejector. The cycle configuration is provided with a bypass passage that connects a channel on a discharge side of a compressor directly to a channel upstream of the evaporator, and this bypass passage is provided with a shut mechanism.
A mechanism (e.g., throttle, check valve) is provided between the joint between the channel on the upstream side of the evaporator and the bypass passage, and the liquid phase refrigerant outlet of the vapor-liquid separator. The mechanism is for preventing high-temperature refrigerant from the bypass passage from going toward the liquid phase refrigerant outlet of the vapor-liquid separator.
When the evaporator is defrosted, the shut mechanism in the bypass passage is brought into an open state, and high-temperature refrigerant (hot gas) on the discharge side of the compressor is led from the bypass passage into the evaporator. The evaporator is thereby defrosted. At this time, the above-described mechanism makes it possible to prevent high-temperature refrigerant from going toward the liquid phase refrigerant outlet of the vapor-liquid separator. Therefore, all of the high-temperature refrigerant from the bypass passage can be used to defrost the evaporator. (Refer to JP 2003-83622A, for example.)
In the cycle configuration disclosed in JP 2003-83622A, an evaporator is provided only between the liquid phase refrigerant outlet of a vapor-liquid separator and the refrigerant suction port of an ejector. It does not propose anything about a defrosting means in an ejector-type refrigerant cycle device having multiple evaporators.